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FAST-R News
Readings & resources from our newsletter
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Triangulating data
What is “triangulating data”?
You are triangulating data when you take information from one source and compare and contrast it to similar information received from (at least) two other sources in an effort to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the interaction between teaching, learning, and context.
Why should I triangulate data?
It is often inaccurate and simply unwise to rely solely on just one source of data. Triangulation of data provides a more complete picture of students’ performance and gives clues about instructional next steps, including areas of strength to build on. It also ensures that instructional and programmatic decisions about kids’ learning are soundly supported by multiple sources of data, lessening the possible implications of “a bad testing day” or an unusually low performance.
When should I triangulate data?
• when you are looking for a particular pattern in performance
• at the beginning and middle of the school year to determine the instruction students need to progress
• at the end of year to determine if learning goals were met and to recommend future instruction needed
• when you are trying to better understand a particular student or group of students whose performance is puzzling to you
How does this work in practice?
If you were looking for: patterns in students’ performance on questions that require them to make sense of an unfamiliar word or phrase they encounter as they read
You might look at:
• relevant items from the ELA MCAS your students took last spring
• FAST-R making inference type 1 (MI1) questions
• GRADE (diagnostic assessment) reading comprehension data
• student work, such as students’ annotations of texts, literature circle assignments, or reader’s response notebooks
You would look for both consistencies and inconsistencies in student performance on this type of inference question across the three sources of data. Does a pattern emerge? (For instance, do kids seem to do a better job figuring out unfamiliar vocabulary than noticing an unfamiliar usage of a familiar word?) If so, work with your colleagues to plan instructional practices to address the pattern… and plan how you’ll assess to collect evidence of student learning!
Your initial analysis might raise some questions that can’t be answered with the data you have. Consider collecting more (e.g., giving a FAST-R with several questions that assess that skill, looking at more student work) or even interviewing a student. Once you get in the habit of triangulating data, each new data source adds to the richness of your understanding!
To download a copy of the FAST-R Student Learning Profile worksheet, which can help you triangulate data on a single student, click here.
For more information on triangulating data, see Sandra Mathison’s article Why Triangulate? Education Researcher, vol 17, No 2, March 1988, pp 13-17.
Note: ____ Denzin, 1978, argues that there are four types of data triangulation: time, space, people, and sources. For our purposes in improving English literacy in schools, we focus mainly on triangulation of sources.
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Using FAST-R Data in the Classroom
After using FAST-R data to identify the reading and thinking skills that their students need to learn, the teachers profiled below took action! Check out their instructional next steps, as well as how they plan to look for evidence of learning to be sure students “got it”!
Teachers: Shelly Gufert and Melissa Sidoropolous, Holmes ES, Grade 3
Priority Teaching Area: Finding Evidence
Steps to Address
• Reviewed FAST-R “finding evidence” questions with the whole class, asking students to share how they found the answers and reflect on what made some hard
• Taught mini-lesson on “finding evidence”/ proving your answer and reinforced the skill in small groups
• Created “finding evidence” questions related to texts students were reading in a science unit
Evidence of Learning
Shelly and Melissa have ensured that their students have increased the number of correct “finding evidence” questions after administering the “Green Thumb” passage and analyzing their data
Teacher Maria Karloutsos, Manning ES
Priority Teaching Area “According to…” questions
Steps to Address
• Triangulate data and do item analysis to pick up patterns in the types of “according to” questions kids were missing
• Observe students’ reading behaviors—Maria noticed that some returned to the text to re-read the sentence referenced by the question, but were not viewing it in context.
• Teach a mini-lesson on the importance of re-reading not only the sentence the question refers to but also the paragraph in which the sentence is embedded.
• Reinforce this strategy along with others to develop students’ schemas as they read and answer questions
Evidence of Learning
Maria will observe students as they take their next FAST-R and will pay particular attention to their performance on “according to” questions.
To download the FAST-R Data Analysis worksheet, which can help you identify a priority teaching focus and start to plan instructional next steps, click here.
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Stacie Withington’s ideas on FAST-R
“FAST-R has truly transformed my teaching as it gives me a lens into my students’ thinking. I am using FAST-R to model my lessons to foster individual achievement and goals. I look at the FAST-R data and arrange my students into areas of strengths and weaknesses. I think of the systems of strategic actions for processing written texts and how it relates. The students are then flexibility grouped according to needs.
The students are re-introduced to the FAST-R and use conversational talk as outlined in comprehension and fluency by Fountas and Pinnell to really understand why or how they answered a particular question. Students have a chance to see. I love to take the guessing work out.
Then I use the genre, lessons, and questions to tap into the needs of the students. It could involve any of the FAST-R types and levels of thinking such as evidence or inferring. I also plan according to Bloom’s Taxonomy or the twelve areas of strategic processing (ex. solving words, monitoring and correcting, searching for and using information, summarizing, maintaining fluency, adjusting, predicting, making connections, inferring, synthesizing, analyzing, and critiquing).
FAST-R in a nutshell helps me understand how to help my students. It allows me to address my students’ needs and gives me a way to purposefully teach my lessons.”
–Stacie Withington, Marshall Elementary
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Annotating Text
Want to help students slow down and develop their critical thinking skills? Teach them to annotate the text as they read! Examples of annotating text can include taking notes, outlining, paraphrasing, and/or questioning (responding to text) text on sticky notes.
Why Annotate?
Annotating text helps students stay focused and involved with the text. Annotating text also helps students to direct their reading for specific purposes. Students can learn about author's craft, organize information, reexamine a text, and deepen their comprehension skills.
Reponding, Questioning, and Synthesizing while
Developing Higher OrderThinking Skills
Annotating text helps students to make inferences (MI1, MI2, MI3, MI4, MI5) using evidence in the text to identify where and how meaning is created and implied. During reading they develop the ability to respond to text by capturing their responses to what they understand in the text. This method also allows them to question those sections of the text they do not understand. Strategies that develop students’ reading for meaning can improve and enrich reading if students are taught to consider and attend to what is happening while they are reading. As such, annotation is practiced when teachers offer guided questions to direct students to key information in the text.
How can I help my students learn how to annotate?
Students should be taught strategies that will help them navigate through different types of text. In a nonfiction format, students should be able understand and recognize the big ideas and the supporting details. In a fictional narrative structure, students should understand stylistic features and characterization. These both are essential for synthesizing ideas.
Here are a few critical literacy questions that students can pose when annotating: (especially for non-fiction)
What does the text want me to know? (facts)
What does it want me to think? (ideas)
What does it want me to feel? (emotions)
How does it accomplish these tasks?
Whose perspective is represented?
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